Apparatus for charging blast and other shaft furnaces



(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

0. s. HURD.

APPARATUS FOR CHARGING BLAST AND OTHER SHAFT FURNACES. No. 329,044. Patented Oct. 27, 1885.

pow/4200000000000 RV PSYERS, mummr. Wllhinglon, lLC.

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

C. S. HURD.

APPARATUS FOR CHARGING BLAST AND OTHER SHAFTTURNAGES.

No. 329,044. Patented 0013. 27, 1885.

N. Kill. MW, WM 0. C

(No Model.) I 3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

G. S. HURD.

APPARATUS FOR CHARGING BLAST AND OTHER SHAFT FURNACES. No. 329,044. Patented 0m. 27, 1885.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES S. HURD, OF NFRV YORK, N. Y.

APPARATUS FOR CHARGING BLAST AND (lTHER SHAFT FURNACES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 329,044, dated October 27, 1885.

Application filed December 22, 1884. Serial No. 151,002. (No model.)

' To all whom it may concern.-

. Be it known that 1, CHARLES S. HURD, a

citizen of the United States, residing in the city, county, and State of New Yorlghave invented a new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Charging Blast and other Shaft Furnaces, of which the following is a specification. v

At the present time the operation of charging such furnaces is usually accomplished in the following manner: The various ingredicuts of which the charge is to be composed are loaded separately with small barrows or hand-cars, and weighed upon ordinary platform scales. These barrows or cars are then rolled by workmen upon a platform-elevator, often some distance away,and hoisted upon the same to the top of the furnace, where they are received by another workman, and pushed or wheeled by him to the edge of the furnaceshaft and dumped into the hopper of the furnace. To effect equal distribution of the charge, it is often necessary to discharge the contents of the cars or barrows at different points around the sides of the shaft, which necessitates considerable extra transportation of the material. After the proper quantity of material has been charged into the hopper in the manner above described, the bell which forms the bottom of the hopper is lowered and the charge precipitated into the shaft evenly around the sides. This operation has always been both tedious and expensive, as it proceeds slowly and entails much manual labor in the handling of the charge, and in large furnaces it necessitates the use of complicated machinery and often of steam or water power to raise the heavy bell after it has been lowered.

My invention relates to an improved arrangement and combination of apparatus for charging such furnaces; and the object of the same is to effect, as far as possible, automatic charging, and thereby to dispense with all hand labor in the manipulation of the charge, except in the single operation of weighing the charge and the various ingredients which compose it, and in this operation to reduce the amount of such hand labor to aminimum. Further objects are to effect the substitution of simple and inexpensive mechanism for the complicated and costly machinery now made necessary at the top of the furnace by the present system of charging, and at the same time to secure more perfect and more even u distribution of the charge than is possible by means of the ordinary system of hand charging. I accomplish these objects by means of an arrangement of bins containing the various ingredients composing the charge, as hereinafter described, and by a series of scales connected therewith, whereby the entire charge may be loaded after weighing into asingle large car which can be weighed or not after'loading, as desirable, and which is then automatically hoisted to the furnace-top, where its contents are discharged and distributed by meansof the mechanism hereinafter described.

My invention will be best understood by reference to the accompanying three sheets of drawings, in which Figure l is a plan view of the furnace and charging-plant. Fig. 2 is an elevation of the same; Fig. 3, a cross-section of the furnace-top, showing the automatic distributing mechanism; Fig. 4., a plan view of the furnace-top and charging car, and Fig. 5 a side elevation of the same.

In Figs. 1 and 2, A represents the blast-furnace and H the inclined hoist, which is shown in broken section in the drawings for the purpose of economizing space. The hoist may have any convenient angle of inclination, ac cording to the amount of space around the furnace. Vhere the space is limited the hoist will be made as nearly vertical as possible.

0 represents the charging car, which is made of boiler or sheet iron. The car is mounted upon wheels running in a railwaytrack upon the inclined hoist, and is moved preferably by means of a wire rope passing over a drum, 0, at the top of the furnace, as shown in Figs. 2, 4., and 5. The rope may be drawn over the drum by any convenient form of hoisting-engine. The lower end of the inclined hoist H terminates in a standard weighing-scale, s, which is so arranged in reference to the hoist that the charging-car passes from the hoist directly upon it and then stops, as shown in Fig. 2. This scale may or may not be placed slightly below ground, as shown in Fig. 2, as may be found convenient. The car 0 is of the shape shown, or of any other shape that will enable it to hold its load while ascending the incline, and is sufficiently large to contain all the material which is to be charged into the furnace at one particular time.

On three sides of the standard scale s is placed,as shown in Fig. 1, a series of bins, B B B, 850., of the description usually employed in metallurgical works for containing the various ingredients of the charge. These bins are arranged in pairs, one pair being placed at either side of the standard scale s, and are placed at a slight distance back from the scale. The dischargespouts-m m the, of these bins are arranged, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, for the purpose of economizing space at the side of the bins, each pair of bins having their spouts placed at the sides adjacent to each other, as shown. In the space between the front of the bin and the sides of l the scales are placed standard scales b b" If,

&c., provided with hopper-shaped weighingpans, arranged to tip and discharge their con tents. Such a scale is placed in front of the spouts of each bin, and the pan is arranged to tip and discharge its contents upon the scales or into the car 0 when the same is standing upon it.

The chargingbins B B B 850., are of any convenient size, and will vary of course with the size of the furnace which they are designed to supply. They are made of wood, and supported upon posts a sufficient distance above the pans of the scales 1) b b &c., to enable them to discharge their contents automatically into the scale-pans. It is immaterial how the discharge-spouts m, &c., of the chargingbins are closed, provided it is accomplished by a mechanism that willenable the workmen to regulate the discharge with facility. In practice a door hinged to the top of the spout and provided with a clamp for opening and holding it to any desired extent will be found most convenient.

\Vhen the scale sis placed in an excavation, as shown in the drawings, the small scales 1) b b, 850., may be placed upon the level of the surface of the ground, and the bins B B B placed a sufficient distance above them to enable them to discharge with facility into the pans of the scales. For convenience, the weight-beam of the scales is placed at one side at the point p, and is raised considerably above the bottom of the scale-pit, so that it may be operated by the workman at a point as near as possible to that at which he stands when engaged in operating the tipping scales. It is immaterial where the beams of the tippingscales are placed, provided that they can be conveniently operated by the workman. The space between the scales and the sides of the bins is just wide enough to enable the workman to pass freely between them when the hoppers are tipped over. The space between each pair of scalesis likewise sufficiently great to enable the workman to stand between them and manipulate the scales. For the sake of convenience, the lever of the hoisting-engine may be arranged so that it may be 0perated by the workman who conducts the charging.

The materials which compose the furnacecharge are supplied to the charging-bins B B B &c., from the cars which bring them to the works, or the beds upon which they are dumped from the cars, by means of a series of metallic pan conveyers, cl (1 d, as shown in Fig. 1. These pan conveyers consist of an endless belt, provided with metallic buckets in the form of shallow pans, revolving over two drums, one of which drums is placed on top of a pair of bins, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The conveyer may be made to discharge into one or the other of the bins by simply sliding the drum 01*, upon which the same rotates on its carriage, over the bin which it is desired to fill; or this may be accomplished by making the drum stationary, and by causing its discharge upon a movable spout arranged to swing round so as to discharge into either of the two bins.

The lower end of the conveyer may be arranged to receive the material either directly from the cars which bring it to the works or from the storing-beds. In Fig. 1, DD represent two such beds. The conveyer d passes under them, and that portion of the bed-bottom which is directly over the conveyer is made in movable sections. \Vhen it is desired to fill a bin, one of these sections is removed and the conveyer set in motion, and the mate rial moved or pushed upon the conveyor. The conveyer may be driven by any convenient form of engine.

In the case of small furnaces, or those not requiring much admixture of ores, two of the bins may be dispensed with, and, if desirable, the large scale s. In larger furnaces using different grade ores supplementary bins for containing minor portions of the charge may be introduced at the points K K'flwith spouts placed in their corner angles and with tipping scales arranged as in connection with the main bins.

The cover of the furnace consists of two concave doors, F F, Figs. 3, 4, and 5, of any convenient shape, preferably of that shown in the drawings, made slightly smaller in each direction than the diameter of the furnace, so as to permit of their opening into the interior of the same, as shown. WVhen closed, the convexity of the doors enables them to serve as a hopper for receiving the charge. They will vary in convexity according to the amount of charge which they are designed to carry before being opened. These doors rotate upon the hinge-bolts g g on the edge of the top plate of the furnace, and are held in position and closed by means of the adjustable weight-ballsf f sliding upon the bent lever-arms f f, Figs. 3, 4, and 5. The doors may be made of cast or sheet iron or other metal, and are provided on the outside with one or more explosionports of suitable size and shape,with weighted IIS covers j, for the purpose of preventing explosions caused by the accumulation of gas in the upper part of the furnace.

The distribution of the charge is effected by means of a conical bell, E, made of iron or other convenient metal, as shown in Figs. 3, 4c, and 5, and similar in size and construction to those ordinarily used in the tops of shaftfurnaces, but differing therefrom in being stationary and not movable, as is usually the case. The bell E is supported in the furnace-top by the lateral supports 6 e, as shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, or by a vertical support passing through a hole in the cover F F on the line where the two portions of the same come together.

For the purpose of automatically discharging the car 0 the rear wheels of the same, 0 c, are provided on the outside with flanges 0" 0 as shown in Fig. 5. WVhen the car reaches the top of the incline H, the flanges come in contact with the outer rails, h /L, which ascend rapidly, and as the car continues to move until the front wheels reach the blocks h h the hind wheels are forced to ascend upon the inclined rails h h until the flanges are caught and held by the bends h 7L2 in the rails h h, at which moment the rear portion of the car will have assumed such an angle in reference to the front portion that it will discharge its contents upon the hopper-shaped cover F F. The cover being convex, as shown, the charge will fall into its center, and the moment that the weight of the charge exceeds that of the two counter-weights f f the cover will drop, precipitating the charge upon the apex of the stationary cone, which will cause the same to be distributed around the sides of the furnace. The hoisting-engine is stopped by means of a spring-lever moved by a forward wheel, 0, of the car when it reaches the position shown in Fig. 5, or by any other convenient mechanism. When the car has discharged its contents, the hoisting-engine is reversed, and as soon as the wire cable becomes slack at the forward end of the car the weight of the same is sufficient to cause it to travel down the inclined hoist and onto the weighing-scale, controlled by the speed of the engine, the lever of which is manipulated by the workman at the bins. For the purpose of effecting more perfect distribution, an ordinary bell-hopper may be inserted in the furnaceshaft slightly above the stationary bell E, and so far below the doors F F that the free opening of the same is not impeded.

The operation of the apparatus is substan tially as follows, it being assumed that the charging-bins B B B are kept constantly filled with their proper ingredients by the conveyers, which are operated at convenient intervals of time: The car C having been lowered upon the scales 8, the workman sets the tipping scales one by one to the amount to be charged of the material contained in the corresponding bin, and draws off from the bin into the scale an amount sufficient to turn the beam. He then closes the chute, empties the tipping scale into the car 0, and proceeds to the next bin and repeats the operation. Then the car G has been charged, its contents may be weighed or not, as may be advisable. If it is advisable to empty all the tipping scales simultaneously and effect a mixture of the charge in the car, the amounts are first weighed out by the workman, and two additional men are then called in to dump each pair of adjoining tipping scales. hen the car has been charged in this manner, the hoisting-engine is started, and the car commences to ascend the inclined plane. lVhen the top is reached, the car is tipped over and the engine stopped. The charge falls upon the hoppershaped doors, where it accumulates for a short time, but finally forces down the doors by its own weight and falls upon the distributing-cone, and thence into the furnace. WVhen the car has been discharged, the workman at the bins reverses the lever of the hoisting-engine, and the car descends the hoist and assnmes its former position on the scale s.

I am aware that it is not new with me, broadly, to combine a self-dumping car with a blast-furnace, nor to combine a stationary bell-cone with a closed furnace-top, nor to combine with a furnace-top a cover composed of two concave doors arranged to open by the weight of the charge; hence I make no claim thereto otherwise than as an element in the combination hereinafter set forth. Ibelieve, however, that I am the first to arrange the charging-bins ina group around the chargingcar in such a position that they can be manipulated by a single workman, and to combine the various other elements therewith in the manner specified, and for the purposes set forth.

I claim as my invention- 1. In an apparatus for charging blast-furnaces, the combination, substantially as hereinbefore described, of the series of chargingbins B B B, 830., provided with the tipping scales I) 1) b &c., placed in front thereof, the hoist H, terminating in the center of the group of bins, provided with the platform-scales s and the charging-car O, means,substantially as described, for hoisting said car to and tipping the same at the top of the furnace, the automatic self-acting furnace-top F F, provided with the explosion-ports j j, and the stationary distributing-cone E in the furnace-shaft, and means for supporting the same, substantially as described.

2. In an apparatus for charging blast-furnaces, the combination, substantially as hereinbefore described, of the series of chargingbins B B B, 820., provided with the tipping scales 1) b N, &c., placed in front thereof, the hoist H, terminating in the center of the group of bins, provided with the platform-scales s and the charging-car 0, means, substantially as described, for hoisting said car to and tipping the same at the top of the furnace, the automatic self-acting fnrnaoe-topFF,provided IIO with the explosionports j j, the stationary bell-shaped hopper and the distributingcone E in the furnace-shaft, and means for supporting the same, substantially as described.

3. In an apparatus for charging blast-furnaces, the combination, as hereinbefore substantially set forth,of a stationary distributing bell-cone placed in and near the top of the furnace shaft, means, substantially as described,for supporting the same, and a concave furnace-top consisting of two doors arranged to open into the furnace upon receiving upon them the weight of the charge, and to dis charge the same upon the distributing-cone and to close automatically.

4. In an apparatus for charging blast-furnaces, the combination, substantially as hereinbefore described, of the inclined hoist H, the charging-car O, and the platform scales s,with the series of charging-bins B B B, 850., provided with the tipping scales 1) I) I), &c., placed in front thereof, arranged radially around the bottom of the hoist, so that the same shall discharge directly into said car, and means, substantially as described, forsupplying and feeding said bins.

5. In an apparatus for charging blast-furnaces, the combination, substantially as hereinbefore described, of the series of chargingbins B B B, &o., provided with the tipping scales 1) I) I)", &c., placed in front thereof, the series of pan-conveyers d (1 (1 for supplying said charging-bins, the hoist H, terminating in the center of the group of bins, provided with the platform-scales s and the chargingcar 0, means, substantially as described, for hoisting the said car to and tipping the same at the top of the furnace, the automatic self acting furnace-top F F, provided with the explosion-ports j j, and the stationary distributing-cone E in the furnaceshaft, and means for supporting the same, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name this 24th day of November, 1884.

CHARLES S. I'IURD.

lVitnesses:

E. T. Bron, J12, ROBERT G. BUTLER. 

